The present invention relates to a window wiper and a wiper actuating mechanism, and more particularly, to a wiper for wiping a surface of a glass of window of an automobile, an construction equipment, and the like, and to a mechanism for actuating the wiper.
Recently, a windshield of an automobile for riding tends to be provided with more inclined slope in order to satisfy user's requirement in style of the automobile. However, when the windshield becomes so inclined and extended in the length (from the top to the bottom) that the ratio of the width to the length becomes to about two, the upper portion of the windshield cannot be wiped by a usual double arms wiper in which two arms and rubber blades wipe respective fan-shaped areas. Therefore, a single arm wiper having only one arm and blade is recently proposed for suitably wiping the inclined windshield.
The wiper includes an arm, and the lower end of the arm is rotatably supported near the lower center of the windshield. Therefore, a semi-circular area from the left and right lower corners to the upper center portion of the glass pane can be sufficiently wiped with the rubber blade. However, the upper corner areas in the both sides are left off without being wiped.
Then, there has been proposed a single arm wiper having a special arm capable of extending in accordance with the angular position thereof. That is to say, the arm extends to sweep the upper corners of the windshield when the arm comes to the angles corresponding to the corners.
For example, a wiper shown in FIG. 10 has a disk-like base member 103 fixed to a body of an automobile at the lower side thereof, and the base member 103 rotatably supports a shaft 109 fixed to a lower end 105 of an arm 104. The base member 103 is provided with a semi-circular internal gear 104 at the inside thereof. Further, the shaft 109 is driven to rotate reciprocally by a motor 111 which rotates in a certain direction, through a crank mechanism 110.
Further, the lower end 105 of the arm 104 carries a pinion 108 engaging with the internal gear 107, and the pinion is rotatably mounted on an eccentric position sifted from the rotational center of the arm 104.
In addition, a sliding member 112 is slidably mounted along the arm 104. A link 110d is fixed to a shaft 109b of the pinion 108 at an end thereof, while another end of the link 110d is connected with the abovementioned sliding member 112 through another link 110e.
In the instant single arm wiper of FIG. 10, when the motor 111 continuously rotates in a direction, the arm 104 is reciprocally rotated over a semi-circular area. In addition, the pinion 108 roles on the internal gear 107, and the rotary motion of the pinion 108 causes reciprocal sliding motions of the sliding member 112 through the links 110d and 110e.
The above-mentioned conventional link-type wiper is complex in construction and heavy. Further, since the wiper is large, a large space is necessary for containing the wiper.
Further, the reciprocal motion of the wiper is based on a quadric crank chain mechanism, the angular speed becomes to the maximum near the center of the windshield. Therefore, water drops splash on walkers due to centrifugal force.
A main object of the present invention is to delete the above-mentioned problems and to provide a window wiper which is light and small so that space-saving design is easy, and in which the splashing of rain drops can be prevented.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a wiper actuating mechanism adapted to drive the arm and blade of such wipers with reciprocal rotations or reciprocal sliding motions.